K»~  '1'.  f&M--    Mi 


Democracy  in  America 

by 


. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


6W-C 


at  vf'/AZtfrtr, 


DEMOCRACY   IN   AMERICA: 


B  V 


GEORGE   W.  BURNAP. 


ORIGIN   AND  CAUSES 


O  F 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA. 


ORIGIN  AND  CAUSES 


o? 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA: 


A    DISCOURSE 


B  V 


GEORGE   W.   BURNAP 


t  $$h 


DELIVERED   IN   BALTIMORE, 

BEFORE     THE 

MARYLAND  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 

OX    ITS 

EIGHTH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION; 


DECEMBER  20,   1- 


JOH\     I).    TOY,    PRIMER. 


JK39 


ORIGIN  AND   CAUSES 


OF 


DEMOCRACY  IN   AMERICA. 


MR.    PRESIDENT    AND    GENTLEMEN: 

The  subject  which  I  have  chosen  for 
your  entertainment  this  evening,  is  The  Origin  and  Causes 
of  Democracy  in  America.  The  United  States  have 
now  taken  rank  among  the  most  powerful  nations  of  the 
globe.  As  such,  we  have  begun  to  exert  a  wide  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  nations,  and  to  act  no  mean  part  in  influenc- 
ing the  future  destiny  of  the  human  race.  It  is  evident, 
that  that  influence  will  be  exerted  in  favor  of  popular  liberty, 
the  natural  rights  of  man,  in  short,  the  universal  government 
of  the  people. 

Right  or  wrong,  for  good  or  for  evil,  this  is  the  influence 
which  we  are  destined  to  exert.  We  have  a  right  to  judge 
so  from  past  experience.  The  impulse  has  already  been  felt 
throughout  Europe,  and  throughout  the  world.  Although  in 
Europe  it  has  suffered  a  temporary  check,  in  the  subjugation 
of  Hungary,  and  the  retrograde  revolution  in  France,  in  the 
defeat  of  the  Republican  movement  in  Germany,  and  the 
suppression  of  the  democratic  demonstration  in  Italy,  it  may- 
be emphatically  said,  that  the  cause,  even  there,  is  not  dead 
2 


LIB  SETS 


6 

but  slumbering,  to  be  revived  at  some  future  day  with  new 
energy,  a  profounder  wisdom,  and  a  more  complete  success, 
The  existence  and  wonderful  prosperity  of  this  nation,  are 
fixed  facts,  and  the  lesson  they  read  is  not  likely  to  be  lost 
upon  the  world. 

Nations,  like  individuals,  have  their  peculiar  organic  type, 
by  which  they  are  distinguished  from  each  other.  It  is  early 
manifested,  and  when  once  fixed,  has  the  power  of  perpetu- 
ating itself  through  countless  generations.  Nationality  seems 
to  have  a  mysterious,  creative,  and  transforming  power.  Like 
that  vital  energy,  which  determines  the  species  of  the  trees  of 
the  forest,  it  has  the  power  of  assimilating  all  things  to  itself. 
The  oak  and  the  pine  spring  up,  side  by  side,  out  of  a  com- 
mon soil,  and  draw  nourishment  from  the  same  elements,  yet 
one  converts  those  elements  into  the  peculiar  wood  and  foli- 
age  of  the  straight  and  lofty  pine,  the  other  into  the  low  and 
gnarled  oak.  So  nationality,  operating  upon  the  elements  of 
a  common  humanity,  assimilates  it  to  its  own  type,  transmits 
that  type  from  age  to  age,  and  transforms  to  its  own  liken 
whatever  foreign  element  is  thrown  into  it.  What  can  be 
more  different  from  each  other,  than  the  two  nations  which 
the  British  Channel  separates?  The  Alps  and  the  Pyrenees 
divide  nations  no  less  diverse  from  each  other.  It  is  not  soil, 
it  is  not  climate,  for  what  more  different  than  the  ancient 
Roman  and  the  modern  Italian?  What  more  dissimilar  than 
the  magnanimous  soldiers  of  Alexander,  and  the  cowering 
slaves  who  have  so  long  kissed  the  footstool  of  the  Ottoman 
throne  ? 

We  have  existed  long  enough  to  develop  and  to  exhibit  our 
national  characteristics.  The  most  prominent  of  these,  as  I 
have  already  said,  is  Democracy.  I  mean,  of  course,  in  no 
sectarian  or  parly  sense.  I  mean  a  government  constituted 
and  administered  by  the  people  themselves.  I  mean  a 
Democracy,  in  contradistinction  to  a  Despotism,  a  Monai. 
an  Aristocracy;  and  as  equally  distinguished  from  Anari 
Agrarianism,  and  Socialism. 

The  formation  of  this  great  Republic  in  the  western  hemi- 
sphere, was  a  result  wholly  unforeseen  and  unpremeditated. 


It  was  projected  by  no  individual  mind,  nor  was  it  the  pro- 
duct of  the  consentaneous  action  of  any  number  of  minds, 
workino-  together  for  a  common  object.  The  members  of  our 
confederacy  had  not  a  common  origin.  They  were  formed  by 
different  circumstances,  yet  when  they  at  last  came  together 
to  form  a  body  politic,  they  were  found  completely  homoge- 
neous, they  bore  one  type,  and  like  the  members  of  the  human 
frame,  they  were  found  to  coalesce  into  one  consistent  and 
symmetrical  whole. 

What  were  the  origin  and  causes  of  this  homogeneousness, 
this  common  element  of  Democracy,  which  pervaded  each 
and  all,  and  made  their  union  into  one  nation  so  easy,  so 
natural,  and  so  perfect. 

At  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America  in  1492,  nothing 
was  more  improbable  than  the  formation  of  a  vast  Republic  in 
North  America,  stretching  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
and  from  either  coast,  sweeping  the  commerce  of  both  oceans. 
There  were  then,  in  the  nations  of  Europe,  from  which  Amer- 
ica was  to  be  colonized,  absolutely  no  materials  from  which 
such  a  product  could   be  expected  to  spring.     The  Demo- 
cratic element  was  no  where  developed  ;  the  government  of 
the  people  was  an  idea  which  did  not  even  enter  the  human 
mind.     The  nations  were  just  emerging  from  the  darkness 
and  barbarism  of  the  Middle  Ages.     So  far  from  governing, 
in  any  part  of  Europe,  the  people  were  scarcely  emancipated 
from  slavery.     They  had  been  for  ages  bought  and  sold  with 
the  land  they  cultivated.     There  was  but  one  nation,  and  that 
was  England,  in   which  they  enjoyed  representation  in  the 
national  legislature,  and  there  they  had  a  voice  merely  to 
authorize   and  legalize   taxation.     There  had  been,  in  that 
countrv,  a  long  and  bloody  struggle  for  power,  but  it  had  been 
between  the  kings  and  the  feudal  aristocracy,  in  which  the 
people,  who  did  the  fighting,  and  endured  the  destruction  of 
the  wars,  had  no  other  interest  than  a  change  of  tyrants.     No 
one  thought  of  vindicating  their  liberties,  or  improving  their 
condition.     They   were    the    mere    pawns    upon    the    chess- 
board of  political  and  national  ambition  ;  and  they  were  used 
with  no  more  feeling  or    sympathy    than  the  ivory  figures, 


8 

■which  are  stained  red  or  left  white,  that  they  may  not  be  con- 
founded in  the  fight. 

Spain  had  just  been  consolidated  into  one  nation,  under 
the  government  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  ;  and  every  ene 
had  been  strained  to  the  utmost,  in  the  struggle  for  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Moors.  In  the  new  monarchy  which  was  estab- 
lished, the  only  representation  which  the  people  had  in  the 
government,  was  in  the  deputations  from  the  cities ;  and  in 
those  deputations  it  was  the  wealth  of  cities,  not  the  popula- 
tion, that  was  represented.  Cities  were  tolerated  in  the 
States  General  from  no  respect  for  popular  rights,  but  because 
the  wheels  of  government  could  not  move  without  money, 
and  the  mercantile  wealth  of  cities  alone  could  furnish  this. 

The  people  of  Spain  were  then  without  education,  without 
wealth,  without  power,  without  the  knowledge  even  of  their 
political  rights.  And,  had  the  winds  of  heaven  driven 
Columbus  upon  the  coast  of  the  United  States,  instead  of  the 
island  of  San  Salvador,  and  North  America  been  peopled 
from  Spain  instead  of  South,  the  territory  we  occupy  would 
now  have  been  what  South  America  and  Mexico  are.  So  far 
from  originating  and  enjoying  a  Republican  government, 
inhabitants  would,  like  them,  have  been  incapable  of  imitat- 

g  one,  when  they  had  the  model  before  their  eyes. 

The  state  of  things  was  no  better  in  France.  There,  at 
the  period  of  which  we  speak,  both  king  and  nobles  united 
to  depress  the  people.  Tiny  did  not  dare  to  trust  them  with 
arms,  and  chose  rather  to  depend  on  i   mercenaries  for 

military  defence,  than  to  suffer  the  people  to  ham  the  secret 
of  their  strength.  There  was  no  effectual  enfranchisement  of 
the  people  in  France,  previous  to  the  revolution  of  1 7  *  J  2 ,  two 
hundred  years  after  the  discovery  of  America. 

Louis  the  Fourteenth,  with  the  rack  of  the  inquisitor,  and 
the  soldier's  sword,  in  the  destruction  of  the  Huguenots,  had 
quenched  out  in  blood,  the  first  sparks  of  popular  liberh 
mce,  before  they  kindled  to  a  flame. 

But  France,  just  as  she  then  was,  tried  her  hand  at  Co 
ing  the  new  world.     Her  ships,  fortunately  .  wandered 

-_r  to  the  North  as  those  of  Spain  had  dune  to    the  Suuth. 


They  sailed  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  laid  the  foundations  of 
Montreal  and  Quebec.  And  there  her  colonies  remain  to  the 
present  day,  unchanged  and  unimproved;  a  petrified  speci- 
men of  what  France  was  two  centuries  ago.  So  far  are  they 
from  Republicanism,  that  few  of  them  have  intelligence  enough 
to  know  the  meaning  of  the  word. 

Venice  and  the  Netherlands,  were  the  only  countries  in 
Europe,  in  which  there  was  even  the  shadow  of  popular  lib- 
erty, and  they  were  too  happy,  and  too  busy,  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fruits  of  their  trade  and  industry,  to  covet  the 
possession  of  a  howling  wilderness. 

And  what  was  England  herself,  at  that  period,  from  which 
liberty  finally  went  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer?     Rather 
behind  the  rest  of  Europe  than  in  advance  of  it.     Her  civili- 
zation had  been  arrested  and  delayed  by  a  series  of  political 
calamities.     Her  energies  had  been  exhausted  in  the  ruinous 
endeavor  to   retain   her  continental   possessions.     Her   best 
blood  had  flowed  in  the  civil  wars;   her  wealth  had  been 
wasted,   and   her   soil  almost    depopulated,   by  the   endless 
quarrel  of  a  disputed  succession.     It  was  not  until  the  claims 
of  the  rival  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster  were  peacefully- 
united  in  the  Seventh  and  Eighth  Henry,  that  England  took 
her   place    in    the    march   of   nations    towards    the    goal   of 
freedom  and  happiness. 

It  was  in  the  year  1497  that  the  continent  of  North  Amer- 
ica was  first  looked  upon  by  English  eyes.     Henry  the  Sev- 
enth was  then  upon  the  throne.     Had  these  shores  been  col- 
onized then,  even  by  Englishmen,  what  would  have  been  the 
result?     A  little  better,  perhaps,  than  what  took  place  in  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  and  on  the  banks  of  the  St.   Lawrence,  but 
not   much.     The  people  of  England  then  had  no    political 
existence.     The  only  recognized  symbol  of  their  being,  as 
well  as  the  germ  of  their  future  power,  appeared  in  the  House 
of  Commons.     But  so  overwhelming  was  the  landed  interest, 
and  so  small  was  the  mercantile  and  mechanical  wealth  of  the 
country,  that  both  king  and  nobility,  so  far  from  regarding  it 
as  a  co-ordinate  power,  looked  upon  it  as  a  convenient  instru- 
ment of  draining  from  the  people  their  proportion  of  the  pub- 


10 

lie  burdens;  and  of  so  little  account  was  it  as  late  as  the 
reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  that  when  that  body  hesitated  to 
pass  a  bill  at  his  order,  he  sent  for  the  Speaker,  and  drawing 
his  finger  round  his  neck,  declared,  "If  my  bill  i*;  not  passed 
to-morrow,  this  must  come  off."  Queen  Elizabeth,  his 
daughter,  reigned  with  a  prerogative  scarcely  less  despotic  ; 
and  we  may  say,  that  during  the  dynasty  of  the  house  of 
Tudor,  terminating  in  1G02,  tour  years  before  the  Virginia  col- 
ony landed  at  Jamestown,  the  idea  of  a  popular  government, 
a  government  based  on  population  and  not  on  property  or 
hereditary  right,  scarcely  entered  the  mind  of  an  Englishman, 
as  within  the  bounds  of  possibility.  And  yet,  from  this  very 
people,  within  a  little  more  than  a  century  and  a  half,  sprang 
our  glorious  Republic,  in  perfect  symmetry  and  beauty,  like 
Minerva  from  the  br<.in  of  Jove. 

How  was  this  wonderful  result  brought  about?  To  devel- 
op  this  process  is  the  theme  of  the  present  addn 

From  what  I  have  already  said,  it  will  be  readily  inferred, 
that  there  was  no  design  in  the  people  of  England,  of  found- 
ing a  great  Republic  in  this  western  world,  nor  did  it  enter 
into  the  minds  of  the  Colonists  themselves.  Wilh  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Puritans,  it  was  the  height  of  their  ambition  to 
reproduce  England  and  her  institutions  in  America,  just  as 
she  then  was.  They  knew  of  nothing  better;  they  could  con- 
ceive of  nothing  more  perfect.  And  after  they  arrived,  they 
long  continued  to  be  Englishmen,  though  transplanted  to  a 
new  world.  Their  idea  of  a  perfect  government  was  of  a 
king,  a  nobility,  and  commons;  but  that  the  third  estate  was 
competent  to  subsist  by  itself,  and  discharge  all  the  functions 
of  government  better  by  itself  than  in  partnership  wilh  the 
others,  never  entered  their  conceptions,  and  was  the  slow 
revelation  of  experience. 

The  first  Colonial  Charter  to  Virginia,  which  dates  in  1606, 
contained  not  a  particle  of  the  popular  element.  It  was 
granted  to  two  companies,  one  composed  "of  noblen 
gentlemen,  and  merchants  of  London;'  the  other,  "of 
knights,  gentlemen,  and  merchants,  in  the  West."  They 
were  to  have  no  representation  in  Parliament,  and  not  even 


11 

the  power  to  make  their  own  laws.  They  were  to  be  gov- 
erned, not  by  themselves,  but  by  a  "  resident  Council, 
appointed  by  the  king,  and  removable  at  his  pleasure." 
Legislation,  even  in  the  minutest  affairs,  was  reserved  to  be 
exercised  by  the  sovereign. 

Scarcely,  however,  had  a  settlement  been  made  on  the 
banks  of  the  James,  when  a  revolution  took  place,  symbolic 
of  the  future  destiny  of  British  colonization  in  the  West. 
The  government  manufactured  by  royal  hands  in  England,  it 
was  found,  would  not  work  in  America.  The  Council,  the 
offspring  of  European  privilege  and  aristocracy,  was  found  too 
feeble,  spiritless,  and  inefficient  for  its  new  and  untried  posi- 
tion, and  was  compelled  to  give  place  to  plain  John  Smith, 
one  of  nature's  noblemen,  who  took  command  of  the  Colony 
by  an  authority  more  authentic  and  indisputable  than  earthly 
monarch  could  ever  bestow,  the  authority  of  a  commanding 
intellect,  and  an  indomitable  will. 

The  whole  territory  of  Maryland  was  originally  given  away 
to  a  single  nobleman.  In  providing  for  its  government,  Lord 
Baltimore  took  such  views,  and  indulged  such  anticipations, 
as  were  natural  to  a  nobleman  of  that  age.  The  Charter, 
which  was  drawn  up  at  Irs  instance,  and  it  is  supposed  accord- 
ing to  his  wishes,  contemplates  the  transfer  to  America, 
whole  and  unchanged,  of  the  feudal  system,  as  it  had  existed 
in  Europe  ever  since  the  overthrow  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
He  secured  to  himself  palatine,  or  royal  jurisdiction,  the 
highest  privilege  of  the  nobility  in  feudal  times.  The  tenth 
section  of  his  Charter  confers  on  him  the  power  of  creating  a 
titled  aristocracy.  In  the  language  of  the  Charter,  "  We  do 
give  free  and  plenary  power  to  the  aforesaid,  now  baron  of 
Baltimore,  and  to  his  heirs  and  assigns,  to  confer  favors, 
rewards  and  honors  upon  such  subjects,  inhabiting  within  the 
province  aforesaid,  as  shall  be  well  deserving,  and  to  adorn 
them  with  whatever  titles  and  dignities  they  shall  appoint,  so 
that  they  be  not  such  as  are  used  in  England." 

The  lands  in  Europe  had  then  been  held  for  ages,  not  by 
the  people  in  fee  simple,  but  by  immense  landed  proprietors, 
and  by  them  leased  out  to  tenants  from  time  to  time.     The- 


12 

same  tenure  of  land  was  contemplated  here.  With  these  vast 
domains  of  the  European  aristocracy,  certain  rights  of  terri- 
torial jurisdiction  were  connected.  The  baron  had  power  to 
organize  and  hold  a  court  of  his  own,  not  subject  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  courts  established  by  the  nation  at  large.  This 
independent  jurisdiction  was  one  of  the  greatest  grievances 
of  the  feudal  system.  It  was  obnoxious  to  both  king  and 
people,  but  it  was  one  which  the  feudal  aristocracy  retained 
with  the  greatest  tenacity.  This  was  to  be  conferred  on  the 
newly  created  American  aristocracy.  By  the  nineteenth  sec- 
tion of  the  Charter,  it  is  provided,  "  We  also,  by  these  pre- 
sents, do  give  and  grant  license  to  the  same  baron  of  Balti- 
more, and  to  his  heirs,  to  erect  any  parcels  of  land  within  the 
province  aforesaid  into  manors,  and  in  every  of  these  manors, 
to  have  and  to  hold  a  court  baron,  and  all  things  which  to  a 
court  baron  do  belong." 

It  is  needless  to  say,  that  these  provisions  remained  a  dead 
letter  upon  the  parchment.  Feudalism  was  found  to  be  inca- 
pable of  transportation  across  the  Atlantic.  It  could  not  live 
for  a  day  in  the  free  atmosphere  of  America.  The  nobleman 
never  came,  himself,  to  give  it  effect.  Emancipated  from  the 
prejudices,  as  well  as  the  institutions  of  the  old  world,  the 
emigrants  to  the  new,  resumed  the  original  rights  of  man,  and 
demanded  the  natural  privileges  of  property  and  legislation. 

In  North  Carolina,  nearly  the  same  experiment  was  tried 
over  agnin.  A  Charter  was  there  granted  to  eight  noblemen 
instead  of  one.  They  were  to  be  the  proprietors  of  the  soil. 
The  dignity  was  to  be  hereditary,  and  in  default  of  heirs,  the 
deficiency  was  to  be  made  up  by  the  choice  of  the  survivors. 
The  territory  was  to  be  divided  into  counties.  Two  orders 
of  nobility  were  to  be  created ;  one  Earl  and  two  Barons  for 
each  county.  Legislation  vested  in  the  proprietors  of  the  soil, 
and  jurisdiction,  or  the  distribution  of  justice,  was  handed 
over,  likewise,  to  the  hereditary  nobility.  To  make  the  bur- 
den of  legislation  light,  one  of  the  greatest  minds  of  that,  or 
any  other  age,  John  Locke,  was  called  in  to  exercise  the 
function  of  lawgiver  to  the  future  oligarchy  of  Carolina. 


13 

These  transactions  date  more  than  half  a  century  after  the 
Charier  to  Lord  Baltimore.  The  insurrection  of  popular  lib- 
erty, in  England,  had  intervened,  which  was  begun  by  the 
Puritans,  and  consummated  by  Cromwell  and  his  Round 
Heads,  and  it  is  surprising  that  no  greater  progress  was  mani- 
fested in  the  appreciation  of  the  rights  and  capabilities  of  the 
people.  But  Shaftsbury  and  Locke,  the  leading  minds  of  that 
period,  were  neither  of  them  enthusiasts  in  any  thing,  and 
they  seem  to  have  shared  in  the  disappointment  which  was 
felt  by  the  nation  in  the  results  of  the  so-called  Common- 
wealth of  England. 

The  Charter  of  Pennsylvania  bears  the  date  of  1681. 
And  it  shows  the  same  features  of  feudalism  with  the  Charter 
of  Maryland.  The  whole  State  was  made  the  property  of 
one  man,  and  powers  nearly  regal  were  conferred  on  the  plain 
Quaker,  William  Penn.  In  fact,  the  whole  State  was  made 
over  to  Penn,  in  discharge  of  a  debt,  owed  to  his  father,  by 
Charles  the  Second.  In  exercise  of  his  regal  rights,  Penn 
proceeded  to  frame  a  government,  and  promulgate  a  code  of 
laws,  of  his  own  device.  But  the  principles  of  civil,  as  well 
as  religious,  freedom,  which  had  been  arrived  at  and  promul- 
gated by  George  Fox,  here  began  to  tell  upon  the  world,  and 
to  be  made  practical  in  laying  the  foundations  of  a  great  Com- 
monwealth. Penn,  though  bred  up  among  the  aristocracy  of 
England,  never  sympathised  with  his  associates,  and  was 
more  at  home  in  the  ultra  democracy  of  a  Quaker  meeting, 
than  in  the  court  of  his  Sovereign.  The  consequence  was, 
that  the  Pennsylvania  Colony  soon  took  on  the  type  of  the 
new  world.  The  power  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  pro- 
prietors, and  they  finally  were  compelled  to  content  them- 
selves with  a  pecuniary  compensation  for  the  surrender  of  all 
feudal  and  royal  prerogatives. 

The  first  colonization  of  New  York  was  nearly  as  aristo- 
cratic as  that  of  the  other  States.  The  Hanse  Towns,  which 
first  cast  their  eyes  towards  the  magnificent  country  which  now 
composes  the  Empire  State,  though  in  advance  of  the  rest  of 
Europe  in  the  principles  of  civil  freedom,  knew  as  yet  abso- 
lutely nothing  of  the  government  of  the  people.  Grotius 
3 


14 

and  Barnevelt,  though  the  lights  of  their  age,  and  finally  the 
victims  to  their  convictions  as  to  the  natural  rights  of  man, 
never  entertained  the  idea  that  a  popular  government  was 
practicable. 

In  the  Netherlands,  power  had  long  since  passed  from  the 
hands  of  the  feudal  aristocracy,  but  it  had  not  come  into  the 
hands  of  the  people.  It  had  been  grasped  and  intercepted  by 
the  merchants,  and  the  destinies  of  that  land  of  industry  and 
commerce,  were  in  the  hands  of  a  moneyed,  instead  of  landed, 
aristocracy. 

The  Colonies  which  were  first  sent  out  from  the  Nether- 
lands, had  for  their  object,  not  so  much  the  establishment  of 
a  permanent  settlement,  as  the  immediate  acquisition  of 
wealth,  which  was  to  be  gathered  from  the  western  wilder- 
ness, and  enjoyed  at  home,  amidst  the  luxury  and  repose  of 
the  Fatherland.  The  acquisition  of  territory  was  a  secon- 
dary object.  But  though  feudalism  was  become  nearly  obso- 
lete at  home,  provision  was  made  for  its  revival  here. 
A  Charter  was  obtained  from  the  States  General  for  the  rising 
Colonies  of  the  New  World.  In  it,  there  is  no  trace  of  popu- 
lar government.  He,  who  within  five  years,  should  plant  a 
Colony  of  fifty  souls,  became  Lord  of  the  Manor,  or  Patron, 
possessing,  in  absolute  property,  the  lands  he  might  colonize. 
Those  lands  <;  might  extend  sixteen  miles  in  length,  or  if  on 
a  river,  they  might  extend  eight  miles  on  each  side,  and  so 
far  into  the  interior  as  might  be  convenient."  Such  was  the 
solid  foundation  laid  by  the  freest  people  in  Europe  for  a 
landed  aristocracy,  on  the  soil  now  constituting  a  most  impor- 
tant part  of  the  United  States.  Such  was  the  beginning  of  a 
people  who  are  now  charged  with  being  a  democracy  run 
mad.  But  it  ought  to  be  added  that  the  traces  of  this  landed 
aristocracy  were  not  immediately  obliterated.  They  remain 
to  the  present  day,  to  be  a  cause  of  political  uneasiness  and 
discontent. 

Thus  it  may  be  said,  that  every  Colony  South  and  West  of 
the  Hudson  river,  was  aristocratic  in  its  origin,  and  in  the 
whole  structure  of  its  contemplated  institutions.  The  fact 
was,  that  no  other  institutions  were  conceived  of  as  possible. 


15 

No  other  idea  was  entertained,  but  of  making  America  a 
repetition  of  Europe,  as  she  then  was;  and  had  the  intentions 
of  the  first  projectors  of  the  colonies  taken  effect,  North 
America  would  have  resembled  England  and  the  Netherlands 
as  closely  as  Mexico  and  South  America  now  resemble  old 
Spain. 

There  was  one  exception  to  all  this ;  the  Puritans.  The 
Colony  of  Plymouth  was  democratic  from  the  beginning. 
The  people  who  landed  in  1620  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  amid 
the  cold  and  snows  of  December,  had  been  exiles  from  Eng- 
land before  they  were  emigrants  to  America.  They  left  their 
country  without  her  motherly  blessing,  and  the  latest  recol- 
lections of  their  native  home  were  associated  with  the 
bitterest  and  most  relentless  persecution.  Monarchy,  prelacy 
and  aristocracy,  were  equally  abominations  in  their  sight. 
They  came  not  therefore,  forth  like  the  other  Colonies,  under 
the  patronage  of  titled  wealth  or  noble  families.  They  were 
the  people  themselves,  going  forth  with  strong  hearts  and 
toil  worn  hands,  to  fell  the  forest  and  create  a  world  of  their 
own.  Their  Democracy  was  organized  on  board  the  May- 
flower, before  a  Pilgrim  had  set  foot  upon  the  shore.  The 
little  Republic  began  to  be,  when  forty-one  signatures  were 
affixed  to  the  following  document : 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  amen.  We  whose  names  are  under- 
written, the  loval  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign,  King 
James,  having  undertaken,  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
advancement  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  the  honor  of  our  king 
and  country,  a  voyage  to  plant  a  Colony  in  the  northern  parts 
of  Virginia,  do  by  these  presents,  solemnly  and  mutually,  in 
the  presence  of  God,  and  one  of  another,  covenant  and 
combine  ourselves  together,  into  a  civil  body  politic,  for  our 
better  ordering  and  preservation  and  furtherance  of  the  ends 
aforesaid,  and  by  virtue  hereof  to  create,  constitute  and  frame 
such  just  and  equal  laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions  and 
offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  conve- 
nient for  the  general  good  of  the  Colony.  Unto  which  we 
promise  all  due  submission  and  obedience." 


16 

Here,  in  this  short  document,  is  the  essence,  the  substance, 
and  almost  the  form,  "of  all  subsequent  distinctive  American 
institutions  and  legislation.  It  is  a  recurrence  to  first  princi- 
ples. It  places  the  new  society  on  the  original  ground  of 
contract.  It  institutes  a  pure  Democracy,  the  government  of 
the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the  people. 

The  Puritans  had  been  trained  for  more  than  half  a  century 
in  the  school  of  Dejnocracy.  During  the  struggle  with  King 
James,  the  Church  and  the  Cavaliers,  they  had  discovered 
and  adopted  the  principle  of  congregational  independence. 
They  had  maintained,  lhat  this  was  not  only  the  original 
organization  of  the  Church,  but  was  in  itself,  the  mode  of 
administering  Christianity  most  consistent  with  national 
justice,  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  man.  This  mode  of 
government  made  every  Church  a  little  Republic  by  itself, 
and  a  seminary  of  Democracy.  Here,  too,  men  learned  not 
only  the  theory,  but  the  practice  of  self-government.  They 
learned  that  a  simple  form  of  government  was  not  only  the 
best,  but  the  cheapest;  and  that  the  immense  sums  which  had 
been  lavished  on  a  splendid  establishment,  both  in  Church 
and  State,  was  money  worse  than  thrown  away.  James, 
with  the  true  instinct  of  despotism,  was  not  long  in  discover- 
ing the  tendency  of  all  these  things,  and  he  exclaimed,  u  No 
bishop,  no  king,"  and  the  Puritans,  seeing  the  true  issue, 
took  up  the  challenge,  and  answered,  "No  bishop  and  no 
king." 

But  in  carrying  out  their  principles  in  their  native  land, 
they  encountered  obstacles  absolutely  insurmountable.  .  There 
was  the  force  of  prescription,  running  against  them  wiih  the 
accumulated  strength  of  centuries;  there  was  the  feudal  tenure 
of  property  ;  there  was  an  hereditary  aristocracy,  to  which 
the  masses  were  accustomed  to  bow  down,  wiih  a  subser- 
viency more  mechanical  and  slavish,  lhan  that  paid  by  the 
Spartan  Helots  to  their  masters.  There  was  the  Church 
establishment,  which  had  grown  up  to  such  a  massive 
strength  as  an  outward  institution,  that  it  might  live  on  as  a 
body  politic,  long  after  the  soul  of  religion  had  become 
utterly  extinct. 


17 

Still  worse  was  it  for  them,  when  they  removed  to  the 
con'inent.  There  they  found  themselves  foreigners,  in  the 
midst  of  a  dense  population,  more  than  ordinarily  obstinate 
in  their  prejudices,  and  fixed  in  their  habits.  Their  hopes  of 
propagating  and  perpetuating  their  principles  in  Holland,  were 
about  as  desperate  as  to  undertake  to  color  the  ocean  with  a 
single  drop.  They  would  not  only  have  failed  to  propagate 
their  principles,  but  have  lost  their  nationality,  and  become 
absorbed  and  lost  in  the  surrounding  population.  Their 
emigration  to  this  country,  desperate  as  might  seem  the 
undertaking,  was  the  only  salvation  of  themselves  and  their 
principles. 

But  Providence  had  reserved  in  North  America  a  spot 
unoccupied,  for  the  trial  of  the  last  great  experiment  of 
humanity.  By  crossing  the  ocean  and  landing  on  these  des- 
olate shores,  they  freed  themselves,  at  one  bound,  of  all  the 
embarrassments  which  forbade  the  development  of  their 
principles  in  the  Old  World.  The  germ  of  popular  liberty 
had  room  to  expand  itself  in  its  simplicity,  purity  and  perfec- 
tion, until  it  has  become  a  tree,  overspreading  a  mighty  conti- 
nent, and  the  exiles  and  the  oppressed  of  all  nations,  seek  a 
refuse  under  the  shadow  of  it. 

But,  as  I  have  already  said,  New  England  was  an  excep- 
tion. It  was  colonized  by  the  people;  and  (he  people  had 
sufficient  resource  in  themselves,  in  their  intelligence  and 
moral  control,  to  govern  themselves.  How  was  it  that  the 
same  result  followed  every  where  else,  under  circumstances 
so  different?  How  was  it,  that  at  the  end  of  a  century  and  a 
half,  the  more  southern  Colonies,  beginning  their  existence 
under  aristocratic  auspices,  and  having  a  strong  oligarchic 
bias  at  first,  were  found  nearly  abreast  of  Massachusetts  in 
the  career  of  democracy  ;  and  all  the  members  of  this  vast 
Confederacy  were  found  to  be  moulded,  like  the  members  of 
a  human  body,  after  one  type,  and  ready  to  coalesce  into  one 
grand  homogeneous  nation? 

The  first  cause,  I  shall  mention,  as  having  necessitated  the 
universal  establishment  of  Democracy  in  America,  was  the 
cheapness  of  land  and  the  dearness  of  labor.      A  new  country 


18 

is  the  poor  man's  paradise.  In  crossing  the  Atlantic,  the 
relations  of  capital  and  labor  were  completely  reversed.  The 
poor  man's  labor  is  his  all.  His  consequence  rises  or  sinks 
in  precise  proportion  to  the  demand  which  exists  for  the  only 
thing  which  he  has  to  bring  to  market.  In  old  and  thickly 
peopled  countries,  like  England  and  Holland,  where  labor 
of  course  was  cheap  and  land  was  dear,  the  chance  for  a 
laborer  to  become  a  freeholder,  was  next  to  hopeless.  He 
could  not  even  emigrate  without  selling  himself  for  a  term  of 
years  into  bondage.  And  it  was  in  this  way,  that  quite  a 
large  proportion  of  the  first  emigrants  came  over.  When 
they  arrived  here,  they  found  a  totally  different  state  of  things. 
Here  was  a  vast  continent  of  land,  but  it  was  worth  nothing 
until  it  was  cleared  and  cultivated.  The  physical  energies  of 
the  laborer  alone  could  do  this.  The  land  owner  became 
the  dependent  man,  and  the  laborer  dictated  his  own  terms. 
When  as  yet  there  was  no  capital  but  land,  the  land  owner 
was  compelled  to  pay  his  laborer  in  land,  and  thus  the 
laborer  became  a  freeholder,  as  well  as  himself.  The 
laborer  too,  was  a  capitalist,  in  the  ownership  of  his  own 
bones  and  sinews  ;  and  on  the  strength  of  his  real  conse- 
quence in  the  community,  he  demanded  and  obtained  the 
right  of  suffrage;  and  when  labor  is  represented,  there  is 
necessarily  a  Democracy. 

In  Europe,  the  recognition  of  popular  rights  was  delayed 
for  many  ages  by  the  universal  prevalence  of  the  feudal 
system.  At  the  breaking  up  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  soil 
of  Europe  was  appropriated,  in  large  tracts,  by  military  chief- 
tains, who  seized  on  every  thing  by  right  of  conquest.  Each 
landed  proprietor  built  his  castle  in  the  midst  of  his  domain, 
and  reigned  there  with  an  absoluteness  equalled  only  by  Ori- 
ental despotism.  There  were  no  people,  in  our  modern 
sense  of  the  term.  The  population  was  divided  into  masters 
and  slaves.  The  right  of  the  one  was  to  command,  and  the 
duty  of  the  other  was  to  obey.  This  system  was  hardly 
shaken  when  America  began  to  be  colonized.  Neither  party, 
the  land  holders  nor  tenants,  conceived  of  any  other  state  of 
things  as  possible. 


19 

A  landed  aristocracy,  fortified  by  the  usage  of  primogeni- 
ture, is  one  of  the  most  lasting  of  all  human  institutions. 
Other  property  easily  passes  from  hand  to  hand,  and  nothing 
is  more  shifting:  than  mercantile  wealth.  During  the  Middle 
Ages,  there  was  nothing  to  oppose  to  the  power  of  the  landed 
aristocracy.  Mercantile  wealth,  the  first  power  that  made 
any  stand  against  it,  was  almost  unknown.  That  is  the  crea- 
tion of  civilization.  In  a  state  of  barbarism,  there  are  no 
manufactures  ;  there  is  no  consumption  of  luxuries  ;  there  is 
nothing  to  pay  for  luxuries  ;  there  is  no  commerce  ;  no  trade  ; 
nothing  to  buy  or  sell.  There  are  no  cities  ;  for  cities  are 
merely  the  marts  of  exchange.  A  growing  civilization 
created  cities,  and  cities  reacted  on  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion. Cities  and  commerce  transferred  the  sceptre  from  land 
to  money,  and  the  lordly  castle  became  subordinated  to  the 
neighboring  city.  The  last  and  final  transition  of  power,  is 
from  property  to  persons,  and  city  and  castle  become  subor- 
dinated to  the  people,  that  great  multitude  whose  power  is 
irresistible,  and  their  voice  as  the  sound  of  many  waters. 

In  Europe,  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  North  America, 
this  process  of  the  transfer  of  power  was  going  on.  But 
every  where  its  progress  was  gradual,  tedious  and  unsteady. 
The  first  impulse  was  given  by  the  Crusades.  To  win  back 
the  Holy  Land  and  sepulchre  of  Christ  from  the  Infidel,  was 
the  passion  of  Christendom  for  more  than  two  centuries. 
Every  thing  wTas  disturbed  by  this  universal  enthusiasm,  and 
society  was  moved  from  its  ancient  foundations.  Vast  quan- 
tities of  property  changed  owners.  The  nobles  of  Europe, 
in  order  to  engage  in  those  distant  and  expensive  enterprizes, 
were  obliged  to  have  money.  They  had  no  ready  money, 
and  they  were  compelled  to  alienate  their  lands  to  procure  it.. 
The  cities  through  which  the  Crusaders  travelled,  were 
enriched  by  their  expenditures,  or  the  fleets  which  bore  them 
across  the  sea,  brought  large  gains  to  their  owners  ;  and  the 
wealth  thus  accumulated,  laid  the  foundation  of  modern  com- 
merce, that  most  powerful  agent  in  all  the  revolutions  of  the 
last   five  centuries.     It  was   one  of  the   steps   towards  the 


20 

emancipation  of  the  people,  and  their  preparation  to  discharge 
the  duties,  as  well  as  enjoy  the  privileges,  of  citizenship. 

But,  when  the  emigration  to  North  America  took  place,  all 
these  intermediate  steps  were  overleaped.  The  people  came 
themselves,  and  unembarrassed  by  feudal  rights  and  aristo- 
cratic usages,  took  the  power  into  their  own  hands. 

This  leads  me  to  speak  of  the  next  cause  of  the  Democracy 
of  the  North  American  Colonies,  which  I  shall  mention — 
their  isolation.  Three  thousand  miles  of  ocean  intervened 
between  '.hem  and  the  old  world.  This  circumstance  was 
not  without  the  most  decisive  and  important  effects.  The 
people  had  their  own  way,  because  they  could  not  be  con- 
trolled by  their  old  masters  at  the  distance  of  three  thousand 
miles.  Nubility  never  emigrated.  There  was  nothing  to 
tempt  it  to  quit  its  ancient  home.  It  was  a  plant  of  such  a 
peculiar  structure,  that  it  would  not  bear  translation  to  another 
soil.  Here  it  would  have  withered  and  died,  amidst  the 
rugged  forests  and  stern  climate  of  America.  A  nobleman 
is  the  creation  of  a  local  conventionalism.  He  nourishes 
only  in  an  artificial  atmosphere.  He  must  be  seen  by  gas 
light.     He  is  at  home  only  in  courts  and  palaces. 

The  pomp  of  courts,  and  the  splendor  of  palaces,  are  the 
contrivances,  not  more  of  human  pride  than  of  far-sighted 
policy.  They  are  intended  to  impose  on  the  i  in  agin  ition  of 
the  multitude;  to  lead  them  to  associate  with  the  condition  of 
their  superiors  the  ideas  of  providential  and  unattainable 
superiority,  to  which  it  is  their  destiny  and  their  duty  to 
submit.  Take  them  away  from  the  stage  on  which  they 
choose  to  exhibit  themselves  ;  strip  them  of  their  dramatic 
costume ;  take  away  the  overhanging  chandelier  and  the  glare 
of  the  fool  lights,  and  let  them  mingle  in  the  common  crowd, 
and  they  become  as  other  men,  and  the  crowd  begin  to  won- 
der how  they  could  ever  have  looked  up  to  them  with  so 
much  reverence. 

They  gained  likewise  advantages  from  assochting  together. 
An  English  nobleman  had  a  hereditary  right  to  a  seat  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  He  mad"  a  part  of  the  national  legislature. 
This  privilege  was  independent  of  the  popular  will.     It  was 


21 

real  power,  a  possession  so  flattering  to  the  pride  of  man. 
There  was  no  reason  therefore,  why  such  a  man  should  wish 
to  leave  his  country.  What  could  he  find  here  congenial  to 
his  taste,  or  flattering  to  his  pride,  or  tolerable  to  his  habits  of 
luxury  and  self-indulgence? 

A  rude  village  on  the  shore  of  the  ocean,  or  on  the  banks  of 
a  stream,  of  a  few  log  cabins,  scattered  here  and  there  in  the 
wilderness,  was  all  the  New  World  had  to  offer  for  many 
generations.  Not  many  would  emigrate  to  such  a  country, 
who  had  any  thing  to  leave  behind.  Much  less  was  it  to  be 
expected,  that  those  would  come  here,  who  had  drawn  the 
highest  prizes  in  life  at  home.  They  could  not  seek  a  new 
organization  of  the  social  condition,  in  which  they  had 
nothing  to  gain  and  every  thing  to  lose.  Here  and  there, 
there  might  be  an  adventurer  of  condition,  who  came  to  this 
country  to  improve  his  broken  fortunes  ;  but  then  it  was,  as 
in  all  new  countries,  with  a  hope  of  returning  to  enjoy  his 
gains  in  a  country  and  a  state  of  society,  where  refined 
enjoyment  was  possible. 

And  after  all,  beyond  a  limited  circle,  America  was,  at  that 
time,  very  little  known  and  very  little  regarded  by  the  people 
of  England.  And  it  is  very  much  so  to  the  present  hour. 
The  best  informed  people,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  know 
little  more  of  the  Geography  of  this  country  than  they  do  of 
the  interior  of  Africa;  and  thousands  and  thousands  who 
move  in  respectable  society,  are  ignorant  whether  we  are 
white  or  copper  colored,  speak  the  English  language  or 
Choctaw. 

America,  then,  grew  up  in  neglect  and  by  stealth.  Unat- 
tractive to  the  higher  classes,  she  drew  to  herself  the  people. 
Here  came  the  people,  the  hard-handed  and  stout-hearted, 
and  carved  out  a  New  World  for  themselves.  They  adapted 
their  institutions  to  their  wTants,  and  before  the  Old  World 
was  aware,  there  had  sprung  up  on  this  broad  continent  a 
gigantic  Republic,  ready  to  take  her  position  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 

The  third  cause  of  Democracy  in  America  was  the  progress 
and  establishment  of  civil  liberty  in  England,  contemporane- 
4 


22 

ously  with  the  colonization  of  this  country  and  formation  of 
its  institutions. 

The  seventeenth  century,  from  the  year  1603,  when  the 
House  of  Stuart  ascended  the  throne  of  England,  three  years 
before  the  settlement  of  Virginia,  till  the  revolution  in  16S8, 
six  years  after  the  arrival  of  Penn  in  Pennsylvania,  was  the 
period  when  the  people  of  England  were  emancipated  from 
political  vassalage,  and  obtained  their  just  weight  in  the 
British  Constitution.  The  main  organ  of  this  stupendous 
revolution,  was  the  English  House  of  Commons.  It  was 
there  that  popular  liberty,  after  struggling  in  the  world  for 
ages  almost  in  vain,  made  her  first  successful  stand,  obtained 
a  hearing  for  her  cause,  and  found  a  voice  to  address  herself 
to  the  nations. 

After  the  suppression  of  the  Roman  Republic  by  Julius 
Caesar,  forty-three  years  before  the  Christian  era,  there  had 
been  nothing  in  Europe  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred  years, 
which  could  be  denominated  a  government  of  the  people. 
He,  himself,  in  his  Gallic  Wars,  gives  a  description  of  the 
condition  of  the  people  of  Gaul  and  Britain  at  that  period. 
"Over  all  Gaul,"  says  he,  "there  are  only  two  orders  of  men 
in  any  degree  of  honor  and  esteem,  for  the  common  people 
are  little  better  than  slaves,  attempt  nothing  of  themseh 
and  have  no  share  in  public  deliberations.  As  they  are 
generally  oppressed  with  debt,  heavy  tributes,  or  the  exac- 
tions of  their  superiors,  they  make  themselves  vassals  to  the 
great,  who  exercise  over  them  the  same  species  of  jurisdic- 
tion as  masters  do  over  slaves.  The  two  orders  of  men  with 
whom,  as  we  have  said,  all  authority  and  distinction  are 
lodged,  are  the  druids  and  nobles." 

When  these  northern  nations  overran  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  were  converted  to  Christianity,  the  only  political  change 
that  took  place,  seems  to  have  been  the  substitution  of  the 
Christian  ecclesiastics  in  the  place  of  the  Pagan  druids. 
The  people  remained  just  where  they  were  before.  Hence  it 
is  that  the  Bishops  sit  in  the  British  House  of  Lords  to  the 
present  hour. 


23 

The  first  dawn  of  modern  freedom  was  in  the  establish- 
ment, as  a  permanent  body,  of  the  House  of  Commons  in 
England.  Besides  the  king,  the  nobility  and  clergy,  as  arts, 
commerce  and  industry  revived,  there  was  seen  gradually  to 
spring  up,  a  third  estate,  the  people.  They  acquired  wealth, 
and  consequently  power.  At  any  rate,  it  was  necessary  that 
they  should  bear  a  part  of  the  public  burdens.  They  were 
first  summoned  to  take  a  part  in  legislation,  merely  to  legiti- 
mate their  own  taxation,  and  so  it  continued  for  some 
generations. 

But  it  was  found,  that  the  same  hands  which  could  grant, 
could  withhold  supplies,  and  both  the  monarch  and  the  aris- 
tocracy discovered  that  the  new  power  which  they  had  called 
into  existence,  had  already  grown  to  an  importance  which 
could  neither  be  dispensed  with,  nor  controlled.  With  the 
acquisition  of  wealth,  came  as  a  natural  consequence,  educa- 
tion, intellectual  development,  literary  culture.  On  these 
followed,  as  an  inevitable  result,  social  influence. 

After  a  long  struggle,  the  House  of  Commons  obtained  the 
liberty  of  free  discussion,  and  then  the  principles  of  civil 
liberty  grew  apace.  Words  were  spoken  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  by  Hampden  and  Prynne  and  their 
patriotic  associates,  wrhich  vibrated  through  the  nation. 
Great  principles  of  right,  of  law  and  humanity,  which  had 
had  no  articulate  expression  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
years,  received  a  clear  exposition  and  an  able  defence.  In 
the  meantime,  literature  was  not  idle.  Milton,  the  sublimest 
genius  that  ever  wore  the  vestments  of  mortality,  took  up  the 
cause  of  mental  freedom  and  civil  liberty,  with  a  force  and  an 
eloquence  never  surpassed.  No  right  of  man,  no  principle 
nor  form  of  popular  government,  was  left  undiscussed. 

The  spread  and  growth  of  these  principles  were  resisted  by 
king  and  nobility,  with  the  most  obstinate  perseverance.  Inch 
by  inch,  the  ground  was  contested.  At  every  successive  Par- 
liament, the  Commons  rose  in  their  demands,  and  required  new 
guaranties  for  the  rights  of  the  people.  The  king  became 
desperate,  and  for  thirteen  years  attempted  to  govern  without 
a  Parliament.     Failing  in  this,  and  yielding  at  last  to  the 


24 

necessities  of  his  condition,  he  again  summoned  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  only  to  discover  that  the  balance  of 
power  had  passed  over  to  the  people,  and  the  sceptre  of  abso- 
lute dominion  had  fallen  forever  from  his  hands.  But  so 
great  a  question  as  this,  the  balance  of  the  British  Constitu- 
tion, could  not  be  settled  without  the  trial  by  battle.  The 
sword  was  drawn,  and  Monarchy  and  Democracy  fought 
hand  to  hand  through  many  a  bloody  year. 

This  struggle  was  no  common  contest.  It  was  not  like  the 
war  of  the  roses,  a  matter  of  personality  and  partizanship — 
whether  this  or  that  branch  of  royalty  should  sit  upon  the 
throne;  but  whether  Monarchy  or  Democracy  should  have 
the  ascendency  in  the  British  Constitution  ;  whether  the  king 
should  govern,  according  to  the  will  of  the  people,  expressed 
by  law,  or  after  his  own  arbitrary  will  and  pleasure. 

Victory  at  length  declared  for  the  people,  and  monarchy 
and  aristocracy  were  driven  into  banishment.  And  had 
Cromwell  been  thirty  years  old  instead  of  fifty,  they  might 
never  have  returned,  and  England  been  at  this  time  a  repre- 
sentative Republic. 

But  the  old  obstacles  were  still  in  the  way.  The  heredi- 
tary reverence  for  monarchy  and  aristocracy  was  still  strong 
in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  the  violent  measures  which 
Democracy  was  compelled  to  take,  in  order  to  establish  and 
maintain  its  ascendency,  became  almost  as  odious  to  the 
nation  as  the  ancient  regime  of  legitimacy  itself.  The  tree 
was  too  old  to  be  bent  into  a  new  shape,  and  as  soon  as  the 
pressure  was  taken  off,  it  recoiled  with  violence  into  its 
ancient   position. 

All  this  took  place  in  the  presence  of  the  civilized  world  ; 
its  bearings  were  considered  and  its  merits  discussed.  The 
interest  felt  in  it  was  intense.  No  where  was  it  so  deep  as 
in  the  American  Colonies,  whose  fathers  and  brothers  were 
engaged  in  the  great  war  of  principles  and  opinions.  And  it 
is  not  difficult  to  conjecture  on  which  side  their  sympathies 
would  be  most  likely  to  be  enlisted. 

The  people,  for  it  was  the  people  who  had  emigrated, 
would  sympathize  with  the  people's  cause.     The  people  at 


25 

home  were  struggling  for  that  which  their  American  brethren 
possessed  without  a  struggle,  by  virtue  of  their  position,  the 
right  to  govern  themselves. 

This  grand  lesson,  at  least,  was  taught  them,  that  king  and 
aristocracy  were  at  all  events  a  superfluity;  that  England 
flourished  quite  as  well  as  a  Commonwealth  as  it  had  done  as 
akinsfdom.  And  though  Englishmen  restored  their  monarch 
and  House  of  Lords  for  old  acquaintance  sake,  to  a  young 
community  it  seemed  quite  unnecessary  to  import  or  manu- 
facture so  expensive  a  luxury. 

At  any  rate,  the  charm  of  Divine  right  was  forever  broken. 
It  was  shown  by  experiment,  that  a  king  is  the  executive  of 
a  nation's  will,  their  chief  magistrate,  and  nothing  more. 
His  authority  comes  up  from  the  people,  but  does  not  come 
down  from  his  ancestors  by  hereditary  right.  An  elective 
magistracy  then,  if  clothed  with  the  power  of  the  people, 
might  be  just  as  efficient,  far  more  convenient,  and  far  less 
dangerous,  than  royalty.  They  had  seen  the  royal  power  too, 
gradually  waning,  and  the  will  of  the  people  becoming 
supreme,  even  under  the  forms  of  monarchy.  A  new  power 
rose  up,  unknown  in  former  ages,  the  power  of  public  opin- 
ion, the  mind  of  the  nation  came  forth  and  declared  itself 
supreme. 

Such  were  the  changes  which  took  place  in  the  political 
condition  of  England,  during  the  seventeenth  century  ;  the 
period  during  which  that  portion  of  North  America  which 
now  constitutes  the  United  States,  was  colonized,  and  took 
on  its  political  type  and  complexion.  It  is  easy  to  see  what 
influences  from  the  mother  country  were  predominant,  and 
what  were  most  congenial  to  a  young  and  growing  country, 
standing  apart  from  the  monarchical  and  aristocratic  institu- 
tions of  the  Old  World. 

The  last  cause  to  which  I  shall  advert  of  the  rise  of  demo- 
cratic institutions  in  America,  was  the  general  diffusion  of 
knowledge  and  education,  and  the  great  improvement  of  the 
condition  of  the  laboring  classes.  The  materials  for  a  Repub- 
lic are  educated  mind  and  personal  independence.  The  price 
of  labor  determines  whether  these  shall  pervade  all  classes. 


26 

A  high  price  of  labor  gives  the  poor  man  the  means  of  edu- 
cating his  children  and  himself,  and  gives  him  a  sense  of 
personal  independence.  But  low  wages  condemn  the  masses 
to  ignorance,  dependence  and  degradation.  A  starving 
population  will  always  be  deaf  to  the  voice  of  reason,  and  its 
stern  necessities  will  drive  it  beyond  all  other  control  than 
that  of  an  iron  despotism.  It  throws  off  monarchy,  only  to 
fall  back  again  under  the  more  stringent  constraint  of  the 
bayonet.  The  suffrages  of  an  ignorant  multitude  are  worth 
nothing,  and  the  direction  of  the  course  of  public  affairs 
might  as  well  be  decided  by  the  cast  of  a  die. 

If  the  question  were  asked,  why  the  government  of  the 
people  did  not  come  sooner  in  modern  times,  it  must  be 
answered  in  all  honesty,  that  the  people  were  not  sooner 
prepared  to  govern.  An  Italian  ecclesiastic  has  lately  told 
the  American  people,  that  in  that  part  of  Italy  where  he  was 
first  called  to  minister,  only  one  person  out  of  five  thousand 
could  read.  How  is  such  a  people  as  that  prepared  to  be 
governed  by  universal  suffrage?  The  people  of  France 
lately  elected  an  absolute  Emperor  for  life,  and  voluntarily 
surrendered  the  fruits  of  the  struggles,  the  bloodshed  and  the 
sufferings  of  the  last  sixty  years.  Political  power  will  always 
follow  intelligence,  for  knowledge  is  power.  From  the  sixth 
to  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Church  shared  largely  in  the 
government  of  the  world.  And  it  is  customary,  in  modern 
times,  to  censure  her  as  an  usurper,  and  to  attribute  the  part 
she  acted  in  civil  affairs,  to  worldly  ambition.  Much  of  this 
censure  is  unjust.  The  Church  governed  the  world,  because 
she  was  the  only  educated  body  of  men  then  extant. 

It  is  in  vain  that  you  put  political  power  into  hands  too 
ignorant  to  wield  it.  Mexico,  in  emulation  of  our  happy 
experiment  of  Republican  institutions,  attempted  the  same. 
But  it  was  only  to  demonstrate  that  she  was  wholly  unprepared 
for  the  experiment.  The  right  of  suffrage  was  established 
with  comparative  ease.  A  President  was  chosen  by  the 
voice  of  the  people,  but  there  was  not  sufficient  intelligence  to 
perceive  the  necessity  of  performing  the  duty  corresponding 
to  the  right  of  suffrage — that  of  submitting  to  the  will  of  the 


27 

majority,  when  expressed  through  the  ballot  box.  The 
defeated  candidate  raised  a  civil  war,  and  overturned  the 
Constitution  before  it  could  be  carried  into  effect.  Our  expe- 
riment would  have  ended  in  the  same  way,  had  not  education 
been  universally  diffused. 

In  this  country,  from  the  very  first,  the  people  of  the 
different  Colonies  were  sufficiently  intelligent  to  make  and 
administer  their  own  laws.  A  large  proportion  of  them  were 
capable  of  the  duties  of  magistracy,  and  their  constituency 
knew  when  their  public  functionaries  served  them  with 
wisdom  and  fidelity.  The  art  of  printing  had  been  in  full 
exercise  more  than  a  century  before  the  first  Colony  was 
planted.  Not  only  was  the  power  to  read  very  generally 
diffused,  but  books  were  multiplied,  and  they  went  with  the 
primitive  settlers  into  the  remotest  forests,  and  the  literary 
luminaries  which  rose  one  after  another  upon  the  Old  World, 
sent  their  rays  across  the  Atlantic,  and  trained  up  a  new  born 
people  to  intelligence,  freedom  and  virtue. 

The   different    Colonies*  had  not  been   long   established, 
before  a  certain  national  feeling  began  to  spring  up  on  this 
side  the  Atlantic,  and  young  America  began  to  have  a  litera- 
ture of  her  own.     Her  Provincial   Legislative   Assemblies, 
allowing  the  largest  liberty  of  speech,  became  the  seminaries 
of  democratic  principles.     Liberal  education  began  to  enlarge 
the  minds  of  the  rising  generation,  and  no  where,  since  the 
suppression  of  the   ancient  Republics,  had  the   classics    of 
Greece  and  Rome  met  a  warmer  welcome,  or  awakened  a 
more  congenial  feeling,  than  in  the  young  men  of  the  New- 
World.     No  where  had  men  been  placed  in  a  situation  so 
analogous  to  that  of  the  great  patriots  and  scholars  of  anti- 
quity.    As  early  as   1704,   the  newspaper   press  began  its 
operations  in  the  Metropolis  of  New  England,  by  sending 
forth  the  "Boston  News  Letter;"  and  then  and  there  was 
laid  one  of  the  corner  stones  of  our  nationality.     Then  and 
there  the  great  American  soul,  already  incarnate,  began  to 
breathe  forth  its  inspiration,  and  carry  vitality  to  the  remotest 
members.     Then  and  there  American  mind  began  to   react 
upon  itself,  and  fuse  into  one  mass  the  various  materials  of 


28 

which  the  Colonies  were  composed.  The  progeny  of  this 
patriarch  of  newspapers,  who  shall  number;  and  what  finite 
intellect  shall  calculate  the  influence  they  have  exerted  on  the 
institutions  and  the  destiny  of  the  country! 

It  was  they  which  helped  to  form  and  discipline  and 
nationalize  those  great  men  who  prompted,  directed  and 
carried  through,  the  struggle  of  the  Revolution,  which  gave 
us  a  being  and  a  name  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

That  great  struggle,  with  its  blood  and  tears  and  toils  and 
treasure,  cemented  and  consolidated  our  nationality  forever. 
The  boldness  of  the  undertaking,  the  doubtfulness  of  the 
issue,  and  the  immediate  sacrifices  which  it  demanded, 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  their  country  the  true,  the  pure, 
the  patriotic  and  the  brave,  while  it  appalled  and  kept  aloof, 
the  timid,  the  time-serving  and  the  false.  The  very  length 
and  severity  of  the  contest  only  made  the  object  for  which 
they  fought  so  long  and  so  desperately,  the  more  dear  to  all 
hearts. 

The  labor  and  patience,  the  heroism  and  sacrifices,  of  that 
martyr  age,  set  apart  the  most  conspicuous  actors  in  the 
scene,  to  an  elevation  in  the  estimation  of  mankind  far  above 
the  level  of  ordinary  humanity.  It  made  them,  as  it  were, 
the  Apostles  of  modern  Liberty,  and  sanctified  their  pre- 
cious words  as  a  sort  of  sacred  testament  to  all  posterity. 
Every  American  feels  himself  enriched  by  the  share  he 
inherits  of  their  glorious  memories,  and  to  forfeit  that  inheri- 
tance by  treason  or  secession,  he  would  feel  as  the  blackest 
disgrace,  the  sorest  bereavement  and  the  most  dreadful 
calamity. 

Their  noble  deeds,  their  glorious  words,  their  wise  admo- 
nitions, their  far-sighted  wisdom,  have  set  the  tone  of  Ameri- 
can patriotism,  and  they  remain  to  guard,  as  it  were  with  a 
sword  of  flame,  the  institutions  they  founded.  The  young 
are  taught  to  repeat  them  with  their  earliest  breath,  the 
middle  aged  catch  anew  their  inspiration,  and  the  old  weep 
tears  of  joy,  that  their  eyes  are  permitted  to  see,  and  their 
ears  to  hear,  the  glory  which  has  burst  in  noon-tide  radiance 


29 

upon  their  country,  but  which  the  early  confessors  and  mar- 
tyrs were  permitted  to  see  but  dimly  and  afar  off. 

Under  the  guidance  of  Providence,  our  patriot  sires  may 
be  said  to  have  fixed  the  type  of  our  nationality  forever. 
The  impediments  which  once  existed  to  the  permanency  of  a 
vast  Republic,  are  now  happily  done  away.  The  national 
roads  of  the  Roman  Empire  continued  for  ages  to  bind  its 
distant  members  together,  when  there  was  no  other  real  tie 
than  a  central  government,  despotic  in  form  and  rapacious  in 
administration.  Here,  separate  States  and  local  municipali- 
ties, are  a  guaranty  against  a  dangerous  consolidation,  and 
the  rapidity  of  communication  which  modern  science  has 
achieved,  has  almost  annihilated  distance,  and  made  our  vast 
Republic  vital  in  every  part. 

We  have  been  tried  to  the  very  verge  of  disunion  and 
disorganization,  only  to  see  patriotism  rise  triumphant  over 
every  interest  and  every  passion;  and  the  sad  eclipse  which 
has  come  over  the  brightest  names  'as  soon  as  they  have 
ceased  to  be  Americans  and  to  go  for  their  country  and  their 
whole  country,  will  appal  the  heart  of  every  recreant  states- 
man, who  shall  for  generations,  conceive  the  profane  idea  of 
dividing  what  God  has  so  manifestly  joined  together. 

What  changes  may  take  place,  when  this  continent  shall 
become  as  thickly  peopled  as  China,  whether  a  democracy 
like  ours  will  then  be  practicable,  no  finite  mind  can  foresee. 

But  till  that  time,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe,  that  the 
type  of  our  national  character  will  be  preserved;  we  shall  go 
on  as  we  have  begun,  the  great  example  of  the  possibility,  of 
the  power,  and  of  the  happiness  of  democratic  institutions. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  T."TOARY 


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